Oh really… with 0.66% conviction rate in Bangalore for IPC 498a, and not much different in rest of India, you may as well wonder that laws are meant only to be misused.
Indira Jaising, one of the people behind PWDVA, Protection from women from domestic violence Act, had said in a report that 498a was meant to create fear of arrest in families, and domestic violence act was meant to create fear of loss of property in families. The feminists have their brains crystal clear about it, but the common public hopes to get justice instead of sorting out things themselves.
Incidentally, the supreme court has also ruled that a wife has access to the 'household' that she has 'shared' with her husband. This, however, is also being flouted. In fact, the 'misuse' of the Dowry Harassment Act is an open secret. Take the instance of Lucknow-based Asha Rani Agarwal and her husband, Gopal Chand Agarwal. The septuagenarian couple disowned their son and daughter-in-law in 2007 and severed contact with the couple owing to a family dispute. In 2008, however, the couple got entangled in a legal battle involving dowry harassment.
Interestingly, despite having no legal rights over the house and with the legal battle still on in court, the daughter-in-law has allegedly taken possession of the old couple's home, thereby forcing them to take refuge in a local 'dharamshala'.